Chapter 24: Land Empires in the Age of Imperialism, 1800-1870

Question 1

Where did Muhammad Ali take over?

Answer 1

Egypt, from the Napoleonic French, 1805

Question 2

What reforms did Muhammad Ali initiate in Egypt?

Answer 2

He established schools for training artillery and cavalry officers, as well as other specialists. He began to send young Turks and Circassians to France for education, started a gazette. He also built factories, which were not good but showed determination to achieve independence and parity with European powers.

Question 3

How did Muhammad Ali pay for his reforms?

Answer 3

He confiscated Muslim religious institution lands and forced farmers to sell crops to the government at fixed prices, which were resold abroad.

Question 4

What military endeavors did Muhammad Ali undertake?

Answer 4

He sent an army to Arabia to expel the Saudi clan from Mecca and Medina. He also created a new army using the French practice of conscription, so that peasants were compelled to become soldiers.

Question 5

What happened in Muhammad Ali’s Egypt due to European pressure?

Answer 5

Limits were placed on Muhammad Ali’s army and navy, he was forced to dissolve economic monopolies and allow Europeans to undertake business ventures in Egypt.

Question 6

What reforms did Sultan Selim III introduce in the Ottoman Empire during his reign from 1789-1807?

Answer 6

Created European style military units, brought provincal governors under control of a central government, standardized taxation and land tenure. An increase in government spending was supposed to be offset by taxes on select items, like tobacco and coffee.

Question 7

Who opposed Selim III’s reforms and why?

Answer 7

The Janissaries, because they did not want their power to be taken.

The ulama was also an opponent because they distrusted secularization of law and proposed taxation

Question 8

Why did Europeans support the Greeks in the Greek War for Independence?

Answer 8

They wanted to recapture classical roots of civilization from Muslims. The war consisted of the British, French, and Russians versus the Ottoman Empire.

Question 9

What happened after the Sultan announced the creation of a new artillery unit?

Answer 9

The Janissaries rose in revolt, and he ordered the new unit to bombard the Janissary barracks, and the Janissary corps was officially dissolved.

Question 10

Mahmud’s reforming ideas had the widest expression in what?

Answer 10

The Tanzimat- a series of reforms announced by Abdul Mejid and endorsed by European ambassadors.

“Abdülmecid I (born April 25, 1823, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Tur.]—died June 25, 1861, Constantinople) was an Ottoman sultan from 1839 to 1861 who issued two major social and political reform edicts known as the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber) in 1839 and the Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Edict) in 1856, heralding the new era of Tanzimat (“Reorganization”).” (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abdulmecid-I)

Question 11

What reforms did the Tanzimat call for?

Answer 11

• Public trials and equal protection under the law
• Rights of privacy
• Equalized eligibility of men for the army
• New formalized tax collection method legally ended tax farming in the Ottoman

Question 12

What was the preferred language of the Ottoman?

Answer 12

French, because it was easier to import foreign textbooks than write new ones in Turkish.

Question 13

Why did the Ottoman military wear the fez?

Answer 13

They accepted the European notion that modern weapons and drill required a change in traditional military dress, however their headgear interfered with prayer, so they wore brimless caps called fez

Question 14

What was the Russian Empire’s ultimate goal in expanding southward?

Answer 14

Free access to the Mediterranean Sea

Question 15

IN 1852 the Sultan named France Protector of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. What did this cause?

Answer 15

Russia didn’t like this, so they invaded the Ottoman, and went to war with Britain and France, allies of the Sultan.

Question 16

What was the Eastern Question?

Answer 16

Should the Ottoman Empire continue to exist? If not, who should take the territory?

“Eastern Question, diplomatic problem posed in the 19th and early 20th centuries by the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, centring on the contest for control of former Ottoman territories. Any internal change in the Turkish domains caused tension among the European powers, each of which feared that one of the others might take advantage of the political disarray to increase its own influence.” (https://www.britannica.com/event/Eastern-Question)

Question 17

What was the Crimean War of 1853-1856?

Answer 17

A conflict between the Ottoman and Russian Empires, Britain and France sent troops to support the Ottoman to prevent Russian expansion.

“Crimean War, (October 1853–February 1856), war fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support from January 1855 by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war arose from the conflict of great powers in the Middle East and was more directly caused by Russian demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman sultan. Another major factor was the dispute between Russia and France over the privileges of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in the holy places in Palestine.” (https://www.britannica.com/event/Crimean-War)

Question 18

What did the Crimean War mark?

Answer 18

The transition from traditional to modern warfare

“The percussion caps and breech-loading rifles that were used in the Crimean War were the beginning of a series of subsequent changes in military technology that included the invention of machine guns, the use of railways to transfer weapons and men, and trench warfare.” (https://www.tesd.net/cms/lib/PA01001259/Centricity/Domain/351/CHAPTER%2024%20OUTLINE%20%20Land%20Empires%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Imperialism.docx)

Question 19

How did Serbia become independent?

Answer 19

The Janissaries revolted, and the Ottoman Empire weas not strong enough to put down the revolt. Serbs wanted independence, and they were backed by Russia, who were also Slavs.

“Tension between the Sultanate and the Janissaries sparked a Janissary revolt in Serbia in 1805. Serbian peasants helped to defeat the Janissary uprising and went on to make Serbia independent of the Ottoman Empire.” (https://www.tesd.net/cms/lib/PA01001259/Centricity/Domain/351/CHAPTER%2024%20OUTLINE%20%20Land%20Empires%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Imperialism.docx)

Question 20

What were the results of the Greek War for Independence?

Answer 20

The Ottoman Sultan announced the creation of a new artillery unit he had secretly been training, resulting in the dissolving of the Janissary corps.

“The Greeks gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. Britain, France, and Russia assisted the Greeks in their struggle for independence and regarded the Greek victory as a triumph of European civilization.

Sultan Mahmud II believed that the loss of Greece indicated a profound weakness in Ottoman military and financial organization. Mahmud used popular outrage over the loss of Greece to justify a series of reforms that included the creation of a new army corps, elimination of the Janissaries, and reduction of the political power of the religious elite. Mahmud’s secularizing reform program was further articulated in the Tanzimat (restructuring) reforms initiated by his successor Abdul Mejid in 1839.” (https://www.tesd.net/cms/lib/PA01001259/Centricity/Domain/351/CHAPTER%2024%20OUTLINE%20%20Land%20Empires%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Imperialism.docx)

Question 21

What was the significance of the Crimean War and its impact on the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 21

• State revenues decreased, and integration with European commercial networks caused bad economic conditions in the Ottoman Empire.
• Europeans in the Ottoman Empire gained extraterritoriality
• Young Ottomans

“After the Crimean War, the Ottoman Empire continued to establish secular financial and commercial institutions on the European model. These reforms contributed to a shift of population from rural to urban areas and the development of professional and wage laborer classes, but they did not solve the regime’s fiscal problems.

Problems associated with the reforms included the Ottoman state’s dependence on foreign loans, a trade deficit, and inflation. In the 1860s and 1870s, discussion of a law that would have permitted all men to vote left Muslims worried that the Ottoman Empire was no longer a Muslim society. This worry may have contributed to Muslim hostilities against Christians in the Ottoman territories in Europe, Armenia, and the Middle East.

The decline of Ottoman power and wealth inspired a group of educated urban men known as the Young Ottomans to band together to work for constitutionalism, liberal reform, and the creation of a Turkish national state in place of the Ottoman Empire. A constitution was granted in 1876, but a coup soon placed a more conservative ruler on the throne; the Ottoman Empire thus continued its weakened existence under the sponsorship of the Western powers until 1922.” (https://www.tesd.net/cms/lib/PA01001259/Centricity/Domain/351/CHAPTER%2024%20OUTLINE%20%20Land%20Empires%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Imperialism.docx)

Question 22

What is Pan-Slavism?

Answer 22

A militant political doctrine advocating unity of all Slavic peoples, including those under Austrian and Ottoman rule, that increased after Russia’s defeat in Crimea.

Question 23

What did Russia rely on for construction of railroad?

Answer 23

Foreign experts

Question 24

How does modernization in Russia compare to modernization in the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 24

Russia had a head start with Peter the Great

Question 25

How did the British make up the trade deficit with the Qing Empire?

Answer 25

They started importing opium.

Question 26

Who were some of the most important Russian writers/ thinkers? What did they want to reform?

Answer 26

Alexander Herzen: encouraged socialist and Slavophile thinking, increased narodmiki, a political movement dedicated to making Russia a land of peasant communes under Alexander II

Feodor Dostoyevski and Count Leo Tostoy began to publish their major novels during the reign of Alexander II, and aired these and other reforming ideas in the debates of the characters they created.

Question 27

What is extraterritoriality?

Answer 27

the right to live under the laws of their own country and disregard those of their host country. (Europeans in Ottoman)

Question 28

What did Young Ottomans do?

Answer 28

Promoted a mix of liberal ideas from Europe, national pride in Ottoman independence, and modernist views of Islam.

They helped draft a new constitution approved by Abdul Hamid II, then suspended it due to war with Russia

Question 29

What was the result of the Treaty of Nanking?

Answer 29

The Treaty of Nanking dismantled the old Canton system and increased the number of treaty ports (cities open to foreign residents) from 1 to 5. They set a 5 percent tariff on imports and paid Britain $21 million

Question 30

What was the “most favored nation status?”

Answer 30

any privileges granted to another country were automatically extended to Britain. This prevented the colonization of China, because if land was given to 1 it had to be given to all.

Question 31

Who was Hong Xiquan?

Answer 31

He was the founder of the Taiping Rebellion. He saw himself as the younger brother of Jesus commissioned by God to found a new kingdom on earth and drive Manchu conquerers (Qing) out of China, resulting in universal peace.

Question 32

What role did women have in the Taiping Rebellion?

Answer 32

Women couldn’t bind their feet, and participated in farming and labor.

Question 33

What led to the Taiping Rebellion?

Answer 33

A mixture of social unhappiness and foreign intrusion.

“Taiping Rebellion, radical political and religious upheaval that was probably the most important event in China in the 19th century. It lasted for some 14 years (1850–64), ravaged 17 provinces, took an estimated 20 million lives, and irrevocably altered the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12).

The rebellion began under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan (1814–64), a disappointed civil service examination candidate who, influenced by Christian teachings, had a series of visions and believed himself to be the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to reform China. A friend of Hong’s, Feng Yunshan, utilized Hong’s ideas to organize a new religious group, the God Worshippers’ Society (Bai Shangdi Hui), which he formed among the impoverished peasants of Guangxi province. In 1847 Hong joined Feng and the God Worshippers, and three years later he led them in rebellion. On January 1, 1851, he proclaimed his new dynasty, the Taiping Tianguo (“Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”), and assumed the title of Tianwang, or “Heavenly King.”

Their credo—to share property in common—attracted many famine-stricken peasants, workers, and miners, as did their propaganda against the foreign Manchu rulers of China. Taiping ranks swelled, and they increased from a ragged band of several thousand to more than one million totally disciplined and fanatically zealous soldiers, organized into separate men’s and women’s divisions.” (https://www.britannica.com/event/Taiping-Rebellion)